So Bad Its Good
Sometimes the wackiest, tackiest, craziest products turn out to be big winners. Joe Pedott (pronounced PEE-dot) was an ad guy with a goofball name. Always on the lookout for the next thing, Joe went to a Chicago home and housewares trade show in 1977 and asked the guy manning the Thrifty Drugstore booth what his best-selling product was. The guy said, “There’s this stupid item called the Chia Pet. I don’t know why anybody buys it." Pedott went loony over the product and bought the rights to it. He created a jingle, did the voice over, and ran TV spots. And away we go.
None of us will ever forget the “Ch-Ch-Ch-Chia” jingle. And they still sell ‘em today. You have Chia Pets in the likeness of Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Willie Nelson, and Bart Simpson. It’s a known fact that if you have Chia Pets of the two presidential candidates, the Chia that sells the most will be the winner. Hey, who needs polls?
Pedott was no one-hit wonder. This goddamn guy was also behind the Clapper and its famous “Clap on! Clap off!” jingle. One crazy thing about the Clapper was sometimes other noises could trigger the sonofabitch to activate. That happened to my old Holyoke buddy, Kielbasa Katz. He sneezed and all the lights went out, leaving Kielbasa wandering in the dark. Funny enough, Kielbasa also has the best Chia Pet collection around, along with the recordings of polka greats Larry Chesky, Happy Louie, and Jimmy Sturr.
Hey, you’ve got to give it to Pedott. The Chia Pet and the Clapper are products that are so bad they’re good. Pedott bought the farm recently at 91. They planted the Chia seeds on his grave. Like always, they will be fully grown in about two weeks.
Keep your dukes up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzY7qQFij_M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ny8-G8EoWOw
If you know someone who’d like these ditties in their inbox every week, have ‘em shoot us an email at darbyo@darbyobrien.com and we’ll add ‘em to the list.